Electrical generators may be used in power plants, cogeneration plants, vehicles, or in other articles of manufacture that convert energy into electrical energy. These electrical generators may contain thin sheets of metal, which are laminated with a thin coating on each side of the thin metal sheet and are generally called “laminations”. The laminations are used in the core of the electrical generator and other electrical equipment to reduce parasitic eddy currents within the generator. Generally, the laminations are cut or stamped from a larger sheet of thin metal that has been previously coated with the thin coatings on each side of the metal prior to cutting or stamping. However, such cutting or stamping from a larger sheet may result in the formation of burrs along the cut edges of each lamination.
Typically, the burrs along the edges of the laminations are removed using time-consuming, imprecise, costly and difficult processes. Processes typically used to deburr along the edges of the lamination include sanding, grinding and other similar mechanical deburring processes. The difficulty in these processes is exasperated by the thinness of the metal sheets and the coatings on the surfaces of the metal. However, these processes not only remove the burrs, these processes may also remove the coating layers on the thin metal. As a result, the laminations prepared by mechanical processes may have insulation damage, which may result in eddy currents in the generator and generator core failure.
Further, the coatings placed on the thin metal may on occasion be applied to a surface of the thin metal that may have metal particles, which may have been missed in the cleaning process prior to coating of the metal. In that situation, the coating will be thin in the area of the metal particle or the metal particle may extend through the surface of the coating. When these metal particles are present on the surface of the lamination, the lamination may be prone to electrical shorting where the metal particles are present.